id the deacon, "if you'll go on, now you've begun, you'll
see you've only made a beginning. By the way, have you got that Bittles
mortgage ready yet?"

"No," said the lawyer, "and I won't have it ready, either. To draw a
mortgage in that way, so the property will fall into your hands quickly
and Bittles will lose everything, is simple rascality, and I'll have
nothing to do with it."

"It's all right if he's willing to sign it, isn't it?" asked the
deacon, with an ugly frown. "His signature is put on by his own free
will, isn't it?"

"You know perfectly well, Deacon Quickset," said the lawyer, "that
fellows like Bittles will sign anything without looking at it, if they
can get a little money to put into some new notion. A man's home should
be the most jealously guarded bit of property in the world: I'm not
going to deceive any man into losing it."

"I didn't suppose," said the deacon, "that getting religious would take
away your respect for the law, and make you above the law."

"It doesn't: it makes me resolve that the law shan't be used for
purposes of the devil."

"Do you mean to call me the devil?" screamed the deacon.

"I'm not calling you anything: I'm speaking of the unrighteous act you
want done. I won't do it for you; and, further, I'll put Bittles on his
guard against any one else who may try it."

"Mr. Bartram," said the deacon, rising, "I guess I'll have to take all
my law-business to somebody else. Good-morning."

"I didn't suppose I should have to suffer for my principles so soon,"
said the lawyer, as the deacon started; "but when _you_ want to be
converted, come see me and you'll learn I bear you no grudge. Indeed,
you'll be obliged to come to me, as you'll learn after you think over
all your affairs a little while."

The deacon stopped: the two men stood face to face a moment, and then
parted in silence.

CHAPTER XVI.

When Eleanor Prency heard that her lover had not only been converted
but was taking an active part in the special religious meetings, she
found herself in what the old women of the vicinity called a "state of
mind." She did not object to young men becoming very good; that is, she
did object to any young man of whom she happened to be very fond
becoming very bad. But it seemed to her that there was a place where
the line should be drawn, and that Reynolds Bartram had overstepped it.
That he might sometime join the church was a possibility to which she
had previously l